pseudo

jargon /soo'doh/ (Usenet) Pseudonym.

1. An electronic-mail or Usenet persona adopted by a human

for amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative

repercussions of one's net.behaviour; a "nom de Usenet",

often associated with forged postings designed to conceal

message origins. Perhaps the best-known and funniest hoax of

this type is BIFF.

2. Notionally, a flamage-generating AI program simulating

a Usenet user. Many flamers have been accused of actually

being such entities, despite the fact that no AI program of

the required sophistication yet exists. However, in 1989

there was a famous series of forged postings that used a

phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the

styles of several well-known flamers; it was based on large

samples of their back postings (compare Dissociated Press).

A significant number of people were fooled by the forgeries,

and the debate over their authenticity was settled only when

the perpetrator came forward to publicly admit the hoax.

[Jargon File]

(1995-03-13)